


Somewhere Over the Rainbow Skies Are Blue

by danrdarrenc



Category: Days of Our Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-21
Updated: 2014-09-21
Packaged: 2018-02-18 07:48:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2340659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danrdarrenc/pseuds/danrdarrenc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soulmates!AU where everything is black and white until you meet your soulmate and everything goes back to black and white when your soulmate dies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Somewhere Over the Rainbow Skies Are Blue

Ever since Sonny was little he’s wondered what it’d be like to see colors. He remembers the first time he learned that the world didn’t always remain black and white:

_He was in 1st grade and his teacher was trying to describe to the class that the sky was blue and grass was green._

_"And, someday, if and when you meet your soulmate, you’ll be able to see the colors that are in the world. Not just blue or green. But red, and orange, and purple, and yellow, and so many more."_

_He stared at her, his mouth hanging open, and imagined the moment when his world would burst into life. Even at six he was tired of waking up every morning and seeing only black and white and gray. He wanted to see the blue of the sky and the green of the grass and the colors of fruits._

* * * * * * * * * *

As he gets older, Sonny finds out that not everyone sees the world in technicolor.

_One night, about a month before he turns nine, Adrienne is tucking him into bed when he asks, “Mommy?”_

_"Yes, sweet pea?"_

_"Do you see colors?"_

_She smiles softly at him and says, “Yeah, I do.”_

_Sonny wraps his arms tightly around his teddy bear before he says, “I can’t wait until I see colors.”_

_Adrienne’s smile falters and she she runs her fingers through his hair. “Well, honey. I thought your teacher explained all that to you a couple years ago?”_

_"She did." He blinks innocently at her. "The world gets turned into colors when you meet your soulmate."_

_“‘When’. Is that how she put it?” Sonny nods but Adrienne thinks his memory is a bit warped. “Honey, listen to me. People may fall in love with each other all the time, but not everyone finds their soulmate. Some people never see colors at all.”_

_"Oh." His face falls in disappointment. A second later, it lights up again. "But you see colors. That means you and Daddy are soulmates!"_

_Adrienne smiles at him. “Alright, sweet pea. Enough questions for tonight. Bed time.”_

_He slides down under his covers until his head is flat on his pillow. “Mommy?” Sonny whispers. “Is it true that when your soulmate dies the world goes back to black and white?”_

_Adrienne doesn’t answer right away. Then, “I don’t know, baby. I don’t know.”_

* * * * * * * * *

By the time Sonny turns thirteen he’s almost completely given up on ever seeing anything other than the dullness of every day. He’s already started to realize that he’s different than his classmates, that he doesn’t think of girls in the way his other guy friends do, that he looks at boys and feels things, and that realization shatters his dreams of soulmates and colors. 

When he comes out to his parents at fifteen, he sees the sadness in his mother’s eyes. He knows she remembers the conversation they had years ago and that she’s sad for what she thinks are his disappointed hopes. He doesn’t tell her, but that night he cries himself asleep for exactly that. 

As he travels across Europe in the couple of years after he graduates high school, Sonny doesn’t admit it to himself but he secretly hopes that one of the people he meets will literally brighten his world. Although he considers meeting his soulmate a long-gone dream, the thought nevertheless still tingles at the back of his mind like an itch that he can’t scratch. But hostel after hostel, mountain after mountain, trek after trek, Sonny’s sight remains strictly bichrome.

* * * * * * * * * 

At twenty-one, worn down and homesick, Sonny makes his way back to Salem. His bag draped over his shoulder, Sonny walks through the town, which is as gray as he remembers it being from when he was a child. He wanders aimlessly for a bit until he finds his way to the pier where he bumps into his cousin Abigail. She embraces him tightly and tells him excitedly how much she’s missed him; he’s just pulling away from her hug when he catches sight of a boy and a girl about his age watching them from the end of the pier. 

Sonny’s eyes lock with the boy’s and suddenly his world tilts. The leaves on the trees slide seamlessly from gray to green, the sky to blue, the wood of the pier to dark wet-stained brown, and the boy’s - _his soulmate_ , Sonny realizes with a jolt - shirt turns from black and white checks to purplish-blue boxes with white stripes running through them. 

Colors continue to blossom all around him as the pair walk towards them - although the girl’s hair remains a firm black - and Sonny thinks his heart stops beating when they come to a stop within feet of where he is standing with Abigail. Sonny barely registers Abigail’s introductions, continues only to stare at the boy - Will Horton, he knows is his name now - who has literally brightened his world, and is shocked again for the second time in minutes when the colors seem to deepen at the moment their hands meet in a handshake. 

Sonny watches, breathless, as Will laughs and blushes in embarrassment for his rudeness, and wonders if Will’s world is newly colorful too. 

____________________

Sonny’s at TBD late one night finishing inventory. Or at least that’s the story he told Will who is at the library doing research for an article, leaving Ari with Justin and Adrienne for the night. In reality, Sonny is finalizing the surprise fifth wedding anniversary plans he’s making for him and Will - a week long trip to New York. Will let it slip once when they were first dating that he’d never seen a Broadway show and that he’s always wanted to visit the Statue of Liberty and Sonny thinks Will will love him for this gift. 

His parents have already agreed to take care of Arianna for the week (God bless them, really. At six, Ari is a little firecracker; Sonny knows Will is a bit alarmed at how much she is taking after Sami.) and he feels (relatively) safe leaving the club in T’s hands. Smiling to himself, Sonny checks their hotel and plane reservations one last time before shutting off his computer.

He takes TBD’s inventory quickly once more just to make sure T really can manage things and then grabs his keys off the bar. Toting his computer under his arm, Sonny lets himself out of the club and locks the double bolts on the door.

He is just about to make his way to his car when suddenly the leaves on the trees lining the walkway fade into a whitish-gray. Sonny blinks, surprised, and turns to the bright orange TBD sign - which is now grayish-black. He spins around in a circle, looking around, and everything that was colorful and full of life only minutes ago is now gray and white and black and dull. 

As he stares dumbfounded at the colorless world around him, Sonny remembers a question he asked his mother once upon a time when he was a little boy: 

_"Is it true that when your soulmate dies the world goes back to black and white?"_

Adrienne hadn’t been able to answer him then, with Justin still alive and well and her world still full of color.

Panic setting in, Sonny nearly drops his computer in his haste to grab his cell phone out of his pocket. With shaking fingers, he dials Will’s number but the call goes straight to voicemail.

Sonny nearly trips over his own feet in his haste to get to his car - which was deep blue when he parked this morning but is now dark gray. It takes him three tries to get the key in the ignition before he steps on the gas. He speeds through Salem without thought or care, screeches to a halt in his parking space at their apartment building, and nearly breaks the door of their apartment down in his blind hope that Will is there, back from the library.

The apartment is dark and cold and colorless - walls that were once yellow are now light gray; their brown-green couch has turned something between dark gray and black; the blue-purple of their bed spread is now a mix of white and black and gray. 

Sonny sinks onto the couch, his head in his hands. The phone rings loud and shrill in the silence of the room and tears immediately stream down Sonny’s face in rivulets. 

"Hello?" he croaks into the phone. 

"Sonny? It’s Dr. Jonas." Daniel’s voice is heavy and the words sound almost like a sigh. "It’s Will." After a pause, "But I’m sure you already knew that."

"Just tell me how it happened," Sonny says flatly.

"Hit and run. He was dead by the time he got here. I’m so sorry, Sonny."

Daniel’s words offer him no warmth or comfort. Sonny hangs up the phone and collapses to the floor with body-wracking sobs, his world forever left devoid of color and life.


End file.
